I love everything about The Disney Boardwalk area. Modeled after a real, turn of the century seaside boardwalk, it’s part of a Deluxe resort, and host to restaurants, bars, and shops. It’s also across the lake from the Yacht and Beach Club Resort, which are two of our favorite Deluxe properties at Disney. Overall, the Boardwalk is a fantastic area to spend some relaxing time at Disney World, especially at night when they turn on all the lights. The Boardwalk is home to one signature restaurant, called The Flying Fish Cafe. The Flying Fish Cafe has been near the top of our ‘must try’ list for years, and we finally had the opportunity in July.
The Flying Fish Cafe is inspired by Coney Island, and has a beautiful, whimsical decor. The atmosphere is impeccable — there’s a ferris wheel, and a brightly colored roller coasted running the length of the wall, curving along the back. ‘Flying fish’ seem to be ballooning from the ceiling in another nod to the turn of the century amusement park theme.
The restaurant had a fantastic and reasonably priced wine menu, which had my inner vino lover high-fiving and cheering. The bread service was Disney-signature typical, but still really good. We ordered the tuna tartare on crispy sushi roll for an appetizer, and it was phenomenal. Unfortunately, after our appetizer, the wheels started to come off of our experience. It might have been our fault. Maybe we were too needy with The Flying Fish. Maybe our expectations were too high. But can you really blame us, with all the high praise we had heard in the blogging community? We ordered the signature dish, which is a potato wrapped snapper. This wasn’t a bad dish, it just wasn’t particularly memorable or special. I guess I had just hoped that if a place believes in a dish enough to make it their signature item, it would be the best item they have. Maybe the rest of the entrees are better, and we just haven’t tried them. We ordered the chocolate peanut butter mousse cake for dessert and struck out again. I hate writing this, because I’ve worked at a restaurant, and because of that, I have an incredible amount of grace – but this was not a good dessert. This was one of the only dishes in my life that I’ve ever actually sent back. We got the Caramelized Banana Napoleon instead, and it was pretty good, but again, nothing memorable.
I genuinely wanted to love The Flying Fish Cafe, and hope that our experience was just a fluke. We had great service, and loved the impeccable atmosphere that this beautiful restaurant cultivates. We have heard such great things on the whole from the Disney blogging community, that we would love to eat at The Flying Fish again, in hopes that maybe we would enjoy the food more.
